


Nightmares

by twentyfourshreds



Category: Rick and Morty
Genre: Character Death In Dream, Comfort, Gen, I dunno man I just wanted to see how I liked writing them, Nightmares, also please note the &, sleeping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-01
Updated: 2018-02-01
Packaged: 2019-03-12 11:24:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13546344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twentyfourshreds/pseuds/twentyfourshreds
Summary: Morty has a nightmare that he can't seem to forget. He seeks out Rick for comfort.





	Nightmares

**Author's Note:**

> Really this is an exercise in the characters, and it's pretty much all it says.

Sweat clung his shirt to his back, the sleeves pushed up to the elbows, and the neck unbuttoned feverishly. He was still sleeping, if barely. His face was contorted in confusion, lines creasing his forehead and pulling the corners of his mouth back, just barely showing his teeth. He groaned and clutched his hands tighter to his chest. His mind was racing, images of horrors and moments of intense pain flickered across his mind's eye. With a start, he was yanked to conscious thought, fear welling into his body, eyes wetting, and chest tight. 

 

Morty could still feel the transmitter strapped to his back, his running slowing as he felt the cable in his chest wiggle loose. He called out to Rick, who didn't hear, who was lying on the ground a dark red stain spreading across his back. Morty held the cable in place, panic seizing his heart, he limped to Rick, his body screaming, his mind silent. The buildings were burning around him bodies of an alien race scattered among the debris.

 

Rick was lying face down, so he had flipped him over, the gaping hole in his chest burnt by lasers, his eyes glassy and soulless. His knees sunk to the ground, bloody and scraped. He clutched the lifeless man to him as best he could he tried to search for the portal gun in his grandfather's coat, and had felt only a gun with no cartridge and his flask. Morty felt the ground rumble, buildings quaking. He was safe in the middle of the street, right?

 

He heard a loud groan and tuned as a building was leaning dangerously over his head. He watched it fall, watched as the structure came crashing right over him and the body of Rick. The sight scaring him into wakefulness. 

 

He pushed himself up from his pillow, the image of Rick's lifeless body burned into the darkness. Morty turned and shakily searched for his phone on the bedside table. After a few seconds of fumbling, he lifted the screen and checked the time, after the initial blinding he found that whatever numbers they were, and in whichever order they had come all ended up being too early.

 

His mind flashed the image of Rick's glassy eyes in the dark and he gave a shaky sigh. He needed to talk to someone about the dream or to just be there to melt the dread from his bones. Summer was out of the question, he hadn't woken her up from something like that in years, his mother locked her door most nights, and his father was all the way across town. The only person left was Rick, so Morty swung his legs over the side of his bed and quietly crept out of his room. The light from his phone cast a pale blue glow over the carpet as he padded down the stairs, making sure to skip the tenth step.

 

He made his way to the garage, most nights Rick was up into the early hours working on any number of his projects Morty cracked the door, it was dark, even the hatch in the concrete floor was shut. He closed the weighted door behind him and headed back into the house, his phone's light leads him through the downstairs to Rick's room.

 

The simple face of the door dully reflected the light from his phone, and Morty fumbled for a moment. He stuffed his phone into the pockets of his pajama pants and gently tested the door. It wasn't latched. Slowly he pushed it open, the hinges silent, as he gently took a step into Rick's room. He saw Rick bolt upright, a glowing device in his hands.

 

"Who-who the fuck are you, what do you want?" He growled the hard lines in his forehead illuminated softly in the glow of the gun.

 

"R-Rick, it's just me. I-," he tripped over his words as Rick stashed the gun back into a pocket in his coat. "Can you- I don't know- just like help me a little?" Morty's voice cracked and he cleared his throat.

 

"With what, Morty, it's the middle of the goddamn night?" Rick asked pulling his legs from the sheets on the cot.

 

"I had a really bad one," he then clarified, "a nightmare, I mean. Can I just like sit here with you? And I dunno chill or something?"

 

Rick burped quietly, "Ugh, isn't that what Summer's there for?"

 

"Rick." Morty frowned and tiredly shifted on his feet. "She'd murder me if I woke her up."

 

"I'd pay to see that," Rick chuckled and a second later his irritation came back, "but seriously Morty, why the fuck did you wake me up for a goddamn nightmare?"

 

"I dunno Rick, it was really disturbing, I can't shake it. Please, Rick, I just-" Morty stalled for a moment, not wanting to fully disclose what his subconscious had shown him.

 

"Fine." Rick's mood let up slightly, "What is- do you want to talk about it or do you just want to chill?"

 

"I-uh- I think just chilling will be alright," Morty replied, shuffling over to Rick's cot. He gingerly sat on the thin mattress and stared into the dark. Rick's warmth was already melting the cold from his bones.

 

"Come here you dummy," Rick's voice rasped as his arm snaked around Morty's shoulder, pulling him into Rick's side.

 

Morty leaned with Rick's tug giving a small smile to the darkness. Silence washed over the two, Rick phasing in and out of dreams, Morty soaking up the comfort of Rick's presence. The images in his mind now distant, the dread in his body draining away with each breath. His mind began to lull and felt sleep pulling at his limbs and eyes. His head nodded dropping away from Rick's side. He felt the fingers on his shoulder tighten, holding his body up before he toppled off the bed.

 

Rick moved his arm away and shifted awkwardly back to lie down glaring up at Morty as he watched Rick move, his brain lagging behind.

 

"Well?" Rick asked arm lifted in a welcome that was lost to Morty.

 

"Huh? What- I don't understand, Rick." Morty answered quietly, mouth lagging just as much as his brain.

 

"Look," Rick brought his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose, "you're already half asleep, and I don't want to lug your ass all the way up the stairs, and I know that by the time you walk up there yourself you won't be able to get back to sleep. Therefore," Rick coughed lightly, "just go to sleep here."

 

"Rick, I'm not si-" Morty began.

 

"I don't care, Morty, nightmares are a bitch to deal with alone, trust me, I know, so just lay down. I-I'm getting frustrated now, therefore either lay down or get out." Rick cut in.

 

Morty sighed and lifted the sheets up and crawled underneath. He laid uncomfortably straight, the cramped cot really only wide enough for one of the two with some space. Rick turned to face the wall, and within seconds Morty heard the varying levels of snores from where Rick lay. And soon he relaxed bit by bit, sleep tugging once again at his eyes. The images of Rick's lifeless body dissolving into the eigengrau behind his eyes. And everything was quiet.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading.


End file.
